Set It Off
How is violence coded by gender and color?
In Thelma & Louise, violence is coded by gender. Throughout the film, male oppressiveness is consistently subverted by the two women's journey toward escape. It is specifically the heteronormativity of the film's relationships that is undone/criticized by violence--abusive husbands, rapists, aggressively crude truck drivers, and swindling crooks comprise the sorts of male-dominated arenas that seek to persecute women, and they are (nearly) all destroyed or maimed. In Set It Off, violence is coded by both gender and color, although color is much more prominent. The four women in this film are victims of unjust bureaucracy and racist societal codes that are ruled by and mainly serve white citizens. Although there is much unsympathetic violence committed by African American characters in the film (for example, in the opening bank robbery committed by males) that shifts the narrative into strongly feminist territory, essentially all of the film's violent acts are clearly signified as interracial. The fact that nearly all of the film's violence is committed by black characters is somewhat troubling, but said violence is not glamorized by the film's end.
How does the role of the white cop function in the narrative?
In both Thelma & Louise and Set It Off, the white cop is portrayed as a counterbalancing force that must comprehend and stifle the revolutionary actions of women--actions that are inseparable from the cultural, economic, political, etc. hardships that caused them. The two white cops serve as semi-sympathetic figures outside of the "oppressed minority" sphere who repeatedly question what they are doing and attempt to bring dangerous, climactic situations to peaceful conclusions that, unfortunately, often end in the deaths of the rebellious women at their own hands. While the continued presence of the cop in Thelma & Louise tends to undermine the film's feminist messages (as it maintains a phallocentric narrative despite its self-reflexive criticism), the cop in Set It Off is presented as a remorseful, conflicted side-character who must maintain order at the cost of a (somewhat) legitimate feminine uprising--the women's situation is not justified, but the alternative is not just, either.